


Short gift stories I've written

by Nonesane



Category: Elfquest
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-01-13 11:07:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1224010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonesane/pseuds/Nonesane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here's a mixed collection of short stories and drabbles I've written for people over on the official ElfQuest forum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Skywise/Foxfur

**Author's Note:**

> For [stargazer](http://www.elfquest.com/social/stargazer/).

Foxfur clamped her mouth and eyes shut as tightly as she could and pressed the palms of her hands against her ears. It did not help much. The explosion, when it came, shook her to the bone. A small gasp escaped her lips.

Carefully she lowered her hands from her ears. The sound of chatter and footsteps she'd at first found so overwhelming was now nothing more than a soft murmur against the memory of the deafening weapon. Her head felt like it had been wrapped very tightly with a piece of soft fur.

Next to her Skywise uncovered his ears as well. All color had left his face and his eyes were wide. Their gazes locked for a long moment before he sent: ~**This...I-I can't believe...did you see?**~

Foxfur flinched slight, bringing her hands up to press against her temples. ~**We must tell the others. Bearclaw will – must – know what to do about this!**~

Skywise gave a tentative nod. ~**On my say, head for the trees.**~

~**Why on your say?**~ Foxfur huffed, still cradling her head.

Skywise attempted to roll his eyes, but only got halfway before flinching, followed by a glare in Foxfur's direction. ~**It has to be someone's say, now run!**~

It took Foxfur a few heartbeats to comprehend the order. Skywise was already halfway to the tree lining by then, which he surely would be very smug about later. Foxfur cursed to herself, but could back the smile on her lips.

Just as she made to follow another loud – though not as loud as the worst – noise erupted not far behind her. With a gasp she saw Skywise stumble forwards. The smell of his blood made her heart freeze.


	2. Fluffy/cheerful Rayek story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [manga](http://www.elfquest.com/social/manga/).

**They’re here again,** Rayek sent, frowning.

**Who?** Ekuar replied. He had his hand and eyes on the basket of food next to him and seemed to be paying his surroundings no mind. Rayek knew better.

**The young ones, right over-** Rayek’s finger, raised to point out his observation, ended up only gesturing at yet another hill of snow; nothing special there, just more of the white, cold stuff. Rayek cursed under his breath. **Well, they were there.**

Ekuar chuckled to himself and began picking through the basket. **They are quick Brownskin, you have to give them that. But their legs are still short. They won’t have gotten far. Maybe you should call them back?**

Rayek took a few steps back from the cliff’s edge, halting next to Ekuar – and closer to the abandoned snow pile. **Maybe I should…** His sending trailed off. Ekuar smiled into the basket.

**Kahvi and her kin have taught them well,** Rayek commented after a while. He was back at the edge of the cliff. **They’re fast and silent, even though there’s at least three of them.**

**Like a flash of skyfire from the blue above,** Ekuar noted before taking a bite out of an apple.

Crossing his arms over his chest Rayek called: “We have seen you! Come back or return to the lodges – you're interrupting.”

When Rayek's voice had faded away the world remained completely still for five heartbeats. Not even the wind blew. Then three very much elfin heads popped up from behind a pile snow, not ten elf-lengths from the one Rayek had pointed at.

Ekuar gave them all a friendly smile. Rayek lifted an eyebrow, his arms still crossed over his chest.

The child farthest to the right pushed her hat up, out of her eyes. She stared at Rayek and Ekuar, seemingly sizing them up. Before anyone else could say anything she turned to her two companions and nodded. None of them could be older than a hand and two turns.

“We saw you fly. We want to fly too.” the girl said, as if she was stating that the sky was blue.

Rayek tilted his head a little and frowned. Next to him Ekuar just smiled and kept on eating. The children approached them, with the girl taking the lead. Unlike her, her two friends were looking at everything but Rayek, their eyes flickering from the edge of the cliff, to Ekuar, to the food basket and back again.

“And what would your chieftess have to say about that?” Rayek asked, meeting the girl's steady gaze.

“I don't care,” she replied, mimicking his stance. “And they don't either,” she then added, almost as an after thought, and waved in the general direction of her two friends. The children in question straightened up, but still seemed unable to keep their eyes fixed on anything for more than a heartbeat.

“Really?” Rayek let his hands uncross and fall to rest on his hips instead.

The girl once more mimicked him. “Uh-huh!”

Her two friends nodded eagerly, nearly shaking their hats off.

“Why don't you take the young ones with you for a little while?” Ekuar interrupted the stare-down, a wide smile on his face. “You did mention you wanted to practise with more weight than your own and they look to be just the right size. I'm sure you'll all have great fun!”

The children all crowed their victory shouts to the skies. Rayek rolled his eyes.

“All right, all right!” Rayek hushed the children, holding up his hands in surrender. “You-” he pointed at the girl, “hold onto my right arm. You-” the second and shortest child, “take my left and you-” the last child, “wrap your arms around my neck. I'll hold onto you as well as I can, but you'll have to do some work as well.”

The children followed orders immediately and clung to Rayek as soon as he'd knelt.

With an annoyed, but amused look at Ekuar, Rayek got up – somewhat unsteady – and walked over to the cliff edge. The children all screamed in delight as they fell towards the frozen river far, far below them. Rayek only smiled to himself.

Above them Ekuar chuckled and took another bite out of his apple.


	3. Funny story about Moonshade and Chitter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [Icemoon](http://www.elfquest.com/social/Icemoon/).

“One more! One more!”

Moonshade covered her yawned with a hand. Her eyelids dropped as she tried to give Chitter a stern look. “I have sung you three howls now, cubling. Go to sleep, “ she muttered, stroking her fingers through Chitter's hair.

“Nooooo!” Chitter whined, struggling out from under her sleeping fur. “One more!”

A deep sigh. Moonshade's shoulders sagged and she leaned back to rest them against the smooth wood of the den's wall. “Sleep...”

By the far end of the den Strongbow had already curled up, dead to the world.

A whimper escaped Chitter's lips. “It's bright-bright-shiny outside! And the pretty not-preservers are playing with the flowers! Wanna go out and play mama, please?”

Moonshade muttered something that could have been 'No, now go to sleep,' had she had the strength to open her jaw more. She blinked once, twice and then all tension left her body and her breathing evened out.

Next to her Chitter kept as still as she possibly could – which wasn't a lot. She had to stop herself from jumping up and down every other heartbeat. Moonshade didn't move a muscle. Her chin had lowered to rest against her chest and her eyes remained closed.

Taking a deep breath and holding it Chitter crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her mother, narrowing her eyes to mimic her father as well as she could. He always squinted like that when tracking prey or thinking really, really hard, so it had to help!

Outside the den birds sang their welcome to the rising sun. Bugs buzzed and the wind rustled through the leaves. Far off near the Holt's borders a preserver screeched a cheerful melody.

Chitter released the air from her lungs not so silently. A gust of her breath ruffled Moonshade's hair. Immediately Chitter clamped both her hands over her mouth, to stifle a giggle. Then, nimble as a tree-wee, she made her escape.

Moonshade might or might not have opened one of her eyes and watched Chitter leave. The possibility didn't even cross Chitter's mind – she was far to focused on her noble quest. She would find and play with the not-preservers!

Getting to the ground was no trouble. Chitter leaped from branch to branch, uttering high pitched shouts of joy for each jump and each landing. The branches, old and hardened as they were, barely swayed under her weight.

The grass was soft and wet with dewdrops. High above her the rest of the tribe dreamed. Chitter had to stop another giggle from escaping and waking anyone. Oh, if mama and papa only knew! Wouldn't they be surprised!

“Pretty, pretty not-preservers!” Chitter called as soon as she'd passed the last denning tree. “Where aaaaareeee yooooouu?!” But they didn't come. Other tiny, flying things circled past her head now and then – sparkling wing beetles and big, fuzzy flies that zigged and zagged like they'd stumbled and hit their heads a few too many times – but not a single, colorful not-preserver.

Something sparkling caught her eye. A brook, filled to the brim with melted snow, splashed forth through the forest. Under its surface small fishies swam, glittering like living silver. Chitter lay down on her stomach and dipped an arm into the chilly water. For a while she played finger taal with the fishies. It wasn't as fun as playing with papa or mama or brother though, since the fishies didn't tag her back.

Maybe there was a papa-shaped shadow behind the big bolder near the brook, keeping a watchful eye on Chitter. She didn't know and if she had she wouldn't have cared, for she'd finally caught sight of a not-preserver!

Yapping in pure delight Chitter got up as swiftly as she could and ran after the beautiful bug.

The not-preserver was fast – maybe even as fast as papa's wolf-friend – and Chitter was soon laughing and panting, running as fast as her short legs would carry her. She held both arms outstretched, but failed to even grace the not-preserver as it fluttered left and right, up and down.

Finally it settled on a flower by a big hole in a big hill. Chitter dived for it with a gleeful shout and squeezed her hands around the flower and the not-preserver, determined that the bug wouldn't get away this time.

As she placed her cupped hands to her eye and looked through to the peephole she'd carefully opened between her thumbs, something moved within the big hole in the big hill.

Chitter gave a heavy sigh as her hands proved to be empty. The not-preserver had disappeared, again. That's when she felt a warm gust of air brush her neck. She whirled around and ended up nose to nose with something brown and furry.

“Hello, hello fuzzy fur bear!” she crowed at the bear cub, that glared at her with bleary, dark eyes. “Wanna play with me and not-preservers? We'll have lots and lots and **lots** of fun together!” The small wolves were always fun to play with, so surely small bears would be as well.

The bear cub's movements were sluggish and before it could as much as start growling Chitter had once more spotted the not-preserver and was off.

If an arrow whistled through the air and hit the ground right in front of the bear cub, startling it to bolt back into its den, Chitter didn't notice.

The not-preserver hunt lasted for a good while longer. The sun was almost up above the lower tree branches when Chitter again lost track of the colorful bug. Her eyelids and legs had begun to feel heavy. She slowed down, yawned and stretched her arms as far over her head as they would go. Then she found a soft, mossy spot by the foot of a tree and fell asleep the moment her head touched the ground.

Moonshade stepped out from behind a nearby tree. She walked over to the sleeping Chitter and knelt down by her side. Chuckling to herself Moonshade wrapped Chitter in a blanket and begun to carry her home.

~**Go to sleep lifemate, Chitter already dreams.**~

Strongbow's reply was a mixture of exhaustion, annoyance and amusement.

“You truly are a handful, dear cubling,” Moonshade whispered. Her only reply was a small, sleepy smile.


	4. Secret Santa 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secret Santa gift on the Official Elfquest Forum back in 2011. Melodytime wished for something sweet with Kimo and Dart.

Dart rolled over to lie on his right side, staring at the rays of sunlight that’d found their way into his den. Next to him Kimo lay curled up, fast asleep.  
  
_Why can't I sleep?_ The day was quiet, only the odd bird chirped from the branches of the Father Tree. The light flickered into the den in uneven rays, as clouds floated past high above. Kimo sighed in his sleep and brought up his right hind leg to sleepily scratch at one of his ears.  
  
Dart watch this through half-closed eyes, smiling slight. _Maybe the calm is making me restless?_  
  
As if invoked by his thoughts a loud open-sending of ** **Chitter**!** roared through his mind. Even Kimo, wrapped up in his wolf-form as he was, started and sat up, nearly tumbling out of the den; only Dart grabbing him by the scuff of his neck saved him.  
  
Moments later the elf cub in question came rushing into the den, swinging from the top of the door-hole onto Kimo's back with a huge grin on her face.  
  
“Brother, brother look what I've got!” she shouted and waved something she was holding, too fast for Dart to make out what 'it' was. His sister kept on talking and waving the thing without any reply from him, but that was only to be expected.  
  
“I was playing tag with Ruff the other night and I won it off of him. He said he'd taken it from the king's own treasure chamber!” She might have made a pause for breath between this and glancing down at the still half-asleep Kimo she was sitting on, but most likely not. “And why is Kimo still a wolf? Isn't it warm to sleep with all that fur when it's all sunny and green outside?”  
  
“If you climb off, he might be able to change back,” Dart simply responded and waited for her hands to still long enough for him to see what she was holding. It glimmered like gold in the sunlight and as it came to rest against Kimo's fur it proved to have the shape of a necklace or bracelet. “Also, father is looking for you.”  
  
Chitter just kept grinning. “I'd best find a higher tree to hide in then,” she crowed merrily. “Hold this for me!” She flung the necklace-or-bracelet in Dart's general direction, ruffled Kimo's fur one last time and then she was gone.  
  
Dart stared after her with resigned amusement in his eyes, then turned his attention to the trinket she'd left him.  
  
Kimo's fur rippled and shone in the familiar way it always did before his change and soon a much more elfin version of him lay among the sleeping furs. “Your sister is getting heavier and heavier for each night,” he muttered and stretched. “What did she bring this time?”  
  
“That's because she gets bigger and bigger,” Dart calmly replied, holding up the trinket at eye level. It was a necklace made of gold, that much was obvious, but it had an oddly wolf like medallion as its center. “Very odd for a troll bauble, isn't it?”  
  
Kimo opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by an elfin shadow blocking the sunlight from entering the den.  
  
“Good morrow, father,” Dart greeted the shadow and held up the trinket Chitter had left behind so it was within Strongbow's reach.  
  
Strongbow snatched up the necklace like it was a ravvit making ready its escape. **Good,** was all he sent in answer.  
  
“You know she would have come to you sooner, if you didn't chase her. She thinks it's far too much fun,” Dart said, smiling and reached out to stroke a hand through Kimo's hair.  
  
**Cutter wants her to apologize,** Strongbow growled, resigned anger oozing from his sending, his posture stiff. **To _Picknose_!** He might just as well have sent 'a-five-finger-smelling-of-dead-stripetail'. But as much bottled up frustration there was in his sending it didn't seem directed at Chitter, trolls or even Picknose. Not for the moment, at least.  
  
Both Kimo and Dart blinked in confusion at this. “Why?” was all Dart could think of asking. “It was Ruff that stole the necklace; it's not Chitter's fault her present was stolen.” _But that's not why he's angry..._  
  
What follow this question would be etched into Dart's memory for many turns to come. In all his life he had never seen his father turn that particular shade of red, ever. It wasn't as strong a blush as he'd seen on Pike or Shenshen, but a blush none the less.  
  
Finally the reply came, in a jumbled mess of images and emotions, but the gist of it seemed to be: 'Picknose doesn't think Chitter is good enough for his grandson.' And then Strongbow was gone, just as swiftly as his daughter, leaving Kimo and Dart to stare out at the sunny sky.  
  
Kimo was the first to laugh. Dart gave him a mock glare at first, but couldn't help smirking a little.  
  
“Chitter, Queen of the trolls!” Kimo cackled, “Feared throughout the underground and the treetops alike.”  
  
“Hush,” Dart muttered, biting the inside of his cheek.  
  
“Mother to a hoard of half-trolls, who chatter the squirrels to death!”  
  
“I take back what I said yesterday – I like you better as a wolf.”  
  
“Ruff, longing for Recognition, has-” The half finished sentence ended in a yelp, followed by more laughter. And then followed by different sounds entirely.  
  
Outside the sun broke through the clouds yet again. Birds chirped. In the far off distance Chitter rushed from branch to branch.  
  
“...And what was that about me being better off as a wolf?” Kimo finally asked, as the sun passed its highest point in the sky. He sounded far too smug.  
  
Dart couldn't have made himself care, even if he'd tried.


	5. Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short look at Kimo and Dart, somewhere.

Sendings never lie.

**How many?** Dart looks worried, but only Kimo knows that.

**I can’t tell from this far away. Many.** Aurek’s mind voice is for once heavy with more than age.

Dart frowns. Kimo moves a barely visible step closer to him. The others huddle together.

**All of you stay here! I’ll take the wolf pack, distract them.**

Some protest, most nod, resigned to it as the only solution. He is chief and there is no time to argue. Kimo grasps his hand, tight.

They touch foreheads; breathe each other’s air.

~**Be safe.**~

Empty thoughts.

Sendings never lie.


	6. The Mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vaguely inspired by "Pan's Labyrinth", full of OCs.

The forest air was cool and misty. The small girl's breath was forming tiny, white clouds in front of her. Her fingers were turning red and she'd almost stumbled over roots four times so far. She hadn't noticed any of that.

"Wait for me!" she called after the small, butterfly like creature. The colorful not-insect landed on a leaf briefly and made an almost giggle like sound. Then it shot into the air again and fluttered off in among the tree trunks. "Waaaait!" the girl shouted after it, frustrated.

A root finally managed to snare one of her feet enough to make her fall. She hit her back hard on a rock and had to gasp for breath a few times, but was swiftly back on her feet, eyes locked on the red wings fluttering between the tree trunks ahead.

"Wait!" Another giggle was her only answer.

She began to run. She ran and ran, pushing at twig-thick branches and splashing mudd all over her skirt. She nearly stumbled again when the forest ended and great, bluish moutain wall blocked her path. The giggling butterfly was easy to spot. It had landed on the rock wall and was lazily stretching its wings - almost as if it was teasing her. With something between a huff and a laugh the girl gathered her last strength and ran towards it.

The butterfly sat perfectly still for a long moment. Just as the girl was within reach to grab it, it darted off with increadible speed and disappeared into a crack. The girl's face twisted with frustrated anger. She stomped her foot and beat her hands against the mountain wall. Then, too exhausted to do anything else, she leaned her back against the rock surface and slid to the ground.

"Tenkra! Tenkra!" The worried voice of her father woke her.

"Here!"

Her father, hair messy and possibly with just as much mud on his clothes as she had, appeared from behind a tree. "Oh thank the powers, there you are! What have I said about running off like that? You frightened you mother half to death! And look at you - it will be impossible to get that dirt out of your clothes. What are you doing here?"

Tenkra got up on shakey legs, her father's angry words not quite catching her attention. "I saw a Guardian!" she exclaimed, the joy of the discovery back in her voice. "It flew in there." She pointed at the crack in the mountain wall.

Her father immediately fell silent and let his gaze follow her finger. His eyes widened, as if he saw the massive, bluish rock for the first time. Then his face grew dark.

"Nonsense! Now hurry up and get back! Your mother's waiting in the transporter. She's most likely still fearing that you've fallen down a hill and broken your neck."

"But.."

"No! I will hear no more of your silly talk of Guardians and Spirits hiding in the bushes. You shouldn't be here, it's dangerous. Get over here now!"

Tenkra did as told. With one last sad glance at the mountain wall, she began following her father back they way she'd come.


End file.
